Your Dog Is A Family Member Too !

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It can be essentially important to regard your dog as part of the family, not just a pet. This doesn’t mean you need to throw a birthday party for them each year, or take them on every vacation you might be interested in. However, it can simply be a much more welcoming environment for an animal (and fun for you too!) if you simply regard them as such. 

After all, why else bring an animal into your home if you can’t enjoy the connection and love you will share, even in the first instance? 

With the following tips in mind, you can be sure to regard your dog as someone important and essential to your household:


Personalize Belongings

Your dog might not own any belongings. However, they might be gifted some fun items to be treated to. For example, custom dog bowls proudly displaying your pets name can be a fun method of differentiating between your pets feeding plates. 

It could also be that you have a personalized collar made, detailing the name they respond to, and all of your contact information. This means if the dog is lost, they will sooner rather than later come into contact with someone willing to reach out to you and return the pet. While your pet likely cannot read English, it can still be a fun thing to brand their items for them. Consider it a quirky activity us humans enjoy doing in the effort to name everything around us.


Own Space

Your pet deserves their own space. Of course, they don’t pay rent, so there’s likely no need to give them their own room. However, allowing them a large bed in a space considerable for their own relaxing at night can help them sleep more easily, and can help them understand where to go at certain times. 

The same could be said for where they eat - a regular place is always better. Sleeping in a certain room can also prevent them from coming to sleep on your bed, or jumping on the sofa - which is both either unhygienic or damaging to your property. If your pet becomes defensive of territorial of their space in your family home, that behavior needs to be quickly discouraged. However, a peaceful dog should be afforded a sense of comfort and regularity in where their areas of relaxation, sleep and feeding are.

Training

A dog might not come with the utmost best behavior. For this reason, ensuring you invest in their training will help them adapt to the family better, and become more tepid or relaxed around your family members. This can be especially important if they are around children, they frighten easily, or you hope for them to act as a form of guard dog. No matter what you choose, it’s important to know just how beneficial this can be to the life of your entire home.


With these simple efforts to make your dog part of your family, they will become less of a pet and more of a cherished companion. That’s what all dogs deserve to be.

Keep Your Canine Best Friend Comfortable As They Age!

Dogs are not just our pets; they are our unconditional best friends, more part of the family that some humans! Sadly, their lifespan is significantly shorter than ours, and that means we will have to deal with them during their senior years as well as when they are young puppies.

However, there are some tactics you can use to keep your mutt in tip-top condition, comfortable, and around for as long as possible as they age. 

Read on to find out what they are.

Look after their teeth.

Teeth can be a critical issue in a dog's’ health. In fact, the teeth are an area that is particularly at risk as dog get older. Specifically, plaque, tooth decay, and gum disease can affect your dog, can be painful, cause problems with their eating, and if not treated in time can mean the offending teeth need to be removed, something that necessitates the use of general anesthetic and the risks that go with it.

Of course, concerning teeth, prevention is always better than cure, and that means providing you dog with teeth cleaning treats and toys regularly throughout their lives as suggested at dogvills.com. You can also brush their the teeth manually, something you can learn how to do in the video below.

Maintain a healthy weight.
Next, an essential part of keeping your dog comfortable as he ages is to keep their weight under control. Now, this can be something of a tall order especially if your pooch likes the odd treat or tidbit off of your plate. However, it is essential to their well being because obesity in dogs is linked to all sort of medical conditions including diabetes, heart disease, and increased strain on arthritic joints.

With that in mind, it is vital that you deal with your dog's diet and only feed them the calories they need. Something that can help with this is to provide them with treat puzzles and toys that require activity to release the food items.

Deal with any health conditions.

To keep your dog comfortable as they age it is vital to deal with any health conditions that arise. Although, sometimes no matter how much you focus on keeping them healthy while they are young, their genetic predisposition and even bad luck can mean that your pooch will still have an illness or disease in later life that needs treatment.

Luckily, vets are adept at picking up on these and treating them in a way that ensures our dog remains comfortable as possible during their older years. You can even help things along by providing treats such as the one available on honestpaws.com to help calm or offer pain relief to your pooch if he is suffering. Something that no owner wants to see!


Adapt their day to day life as they get older.

Lastly, do be sure to adapt your life and routine to match your dogs as they age. What this means is that you may need to provide them with a quiet space in the home or garden where they can rest uninterrupted. Alternatively, you may have to reduce the length and speed of their walks to account for their reduction in mobility as the years go by.